Public Health Costs Accounting of Inorganic Pm2.5 Pollution in Metropolitan Areas of the United States Using a Risk-Based Source-Receptor Model
/Abstract
In order to design effective strategies to reduce the public health burden of ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) imposed at an area, it is necessary to identify the emissions sources affecting that location and quantify their contributions. However, it is challenging because PM2.5 pollutants travel long distances and most undergo complex chemical processes. We developed a reduced-form model for estimating source apportionment of the health costs. Built upon outputs from a state-of-the-art air quality model, our model produces much more comprehensive risk-based source apportionment results than receptor models while requiring trivial computational costs when compared to running state-of-the-art air quality models. Using the model, we analyzed all the sources contributing to the inorganic PM2.5 health burden in 14 metropolitan statistical areas in the United States. Our analysis for 12 source categories shows that 80–90% of the burden borne by these areas originates from emissions sources outside of the area and that emissions sources up to 800 km away need to be included to account for 80% of the burden. Conversely, 60–80% of local emissions’ burden occurs outside. The results demonstrate the importance of control measures over areas far (e.g. up to 800 km) from metropolitan centers.
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